NSE LIVE! Equities in N303bn rally as investors move to penny stocks

Nigerian equities continued to ride high against the expectation of resurgent profit-taking as investors on Thursday shifted demand to low-priced financial services stocks in an exceedingly bullish five-hour trading session that left the market with a net capital gain of N303 billion.

The average year-to-date return at the stock market, which turned positive on Wednesday, jumped to -5.76 per cent on Thursday on the back of average gain of 3.18 per cent or N303 billion recorded during the upwardly market session.

Pricing trend remained widely positive with 44 gainers to 13 losers while the momentum of activities rose above recent average with investors staking N7.82 billion on 801.07 million shares in 6,481 deals. Low-priced stocks, otherwise known as penny stocks, were the toasts of investors who were looking to enter stocks at bargain prices in expectation of continued price rally and steady corporate earnings from the relatively active small and mid-cap companies.

FCMB Group was the most active stock with a turnover of 132.98 million shares valued at N155.55 million. FBN Holdings followed with 72.52 million shares valued at N304.95 million while Fidelity Bank placed third with 68.96 million shares worth N73.24 million.

The benchmark index at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the All Share Index (ASI), crossed another landmark to close at 28,423.70 points from its opening index of 27,546.68 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities rose from N9.522 trillion to close at N9.825 trillion.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities break even with N273bn gain in 5 hours

Most sectoral indices also trended upward with the NSE Industrial Goods Index leading with above average growth of 4.3 per cent. The NSE Banking Index rallied by 4.0 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 3.3 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index inched up by 0.06 per cent. However, the NSE Oil and Gas Index declined by 2.3 per cent on the back of profit-taking transactions.

Most analysts expected the market to remain on the uptrend in the meantime citing improving macroeconomic environment, corporate performance and historical undervaluation of the Nigerian equities.

“We expect sentiment to stay positive in the shorter term as investors react to rebound in economic growth drivers as well as improved flexibility in foreign exchange market structure,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

Total Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N8 to close at N263. Dangote Cement followed with a gain of N7.29 to close at N173.30. Nigerian Breweries rose by N6.80 to close at N142.81. Forte Oil rallied N4.68 to close at N50.41. Lafarge Africa added N2.30 to close at N48.38 while Nestle Nigeria gathered N2 to close at N800.

On the negative side, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the losers with a loss of N41.43 to close at N383.57. BOC Gases dropped by 17 kobo to N3.35 while Nigerian Aviation Handling Company lost 7.0 kobo to close at N3.25 per share.

“We expect the current bullish mood to be sustained at week close in view of the renewed interest by Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs). However, we do not rule out the possibility of profit taking in tomorrow (Friday)’s trading session following recent gains,” SCM Capital Markets stated.

 

 

 

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